


The Legend of Jess-Belle

by FierceTheDarkness



Category: Twilight Zone
Genre: Adaptation, Earl Hammer Jr, F/M, Folk Tale, Twilight Zone - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-23
Updated: 2016-03-23
Packaged: 2018-05-28 13:02:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6330268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FierceTheDarkness/pseuds/FierceTheDarkness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oh, but love and loss and longing create powerful magic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Legend of Jess-Belle

Not so long ago, in the hills of the Appalachian Mountains, there lived two young lovers, Jess-Belle Stone and Billy Ben Turner. Neither of their families had much of anything, but Billy Ben had Jess-Belle and Jess-Belle had Billy Ben.

Now Billy Ben Turner, well, he was a quiet, ambitious, young man. He burned for more. He wanted so many things, and Jess-Belle was just one of those things. But Jess-Belle was wild and dark. She was storm clouds rolling over the mountains, she was the call of the owl at night, and she was the wildflowers that covered the hillsides in the spring – windflower, fairy bells, larkspur, and jessamine.

Jess-Belle loved Billy Ben in her own fierce fashion. She believed in the sweat of his brow, the rush of his blood, and the breath of his voice. His promises made her weightless, and as free as she flew in and out of his arms, she remained tethered by his reach to the solid ground beneath her bare feet. Only Billy Ben was driven to make his way down the mountain to find his place in the world, and he promised Jess-Belle he would be back, that he would always be back, for her, for their love.

Billy Ben found work in a bustling, little valley town - at Old Man Glover’s mercantile. He worked hard and earned Old Man Glover’s favor in the form of Elli Mae, the old man’s only child, the old man’s real fortune. Elli Mae had hair of spun gold, pearly white teeth, lips of ruby red, and the look of the sapphire sea in her eyes. Billy Ben was sure Elli Mae was light, was warmth without heat, was a breeze that whispered over bare skin. Without shadow she was the promise of plenty, of comfort, of harvest, of home.

Autumn came to the mountain, but not Billy Ben, even though Jess-Belle waited and called to him with anguished hope. What answered her were secrets, nightmares of a life fending alone, and the knowledge that once a wild thing was caged, it could never be freed. Jess-Belle believed if she ever started to cry she would never stop. Her tears would flood the valley where Billy Ben had gone and they would wash him and his new love away. These thoughts pursued her over the mountains as she gathered up the last of the flowers - windflower, fairy bells, larkspur, and jessamine.

Oh, but love and loss and longing create a powerful magic, and Jess-Belle knew from the Old Witch Granny Hart to mix those flowers with tears and blood and the dirt of home and then drink her emotions down into a single intention. Underneath the stolen light of a full moon she walked down the mountain to gather Billy Ben like she gathered her flowers.

By winter Billy Ben and Jess-Belle were married, and it was in her wedding bed that Jess-Belle came to understand the price she would pay for wanting, for needing, for having. Every night she slipped from her bed and into the dark with glowing eyes and a coat of coal black fur to sate her hunger with violence and death. Now, the folks on the mountain and in the valleys knew it was nothing human that walked at night, it was only something bewitched that could tear life apart – shred it with sharp and gnashing teeth. Into the hunting clutch stepped Billy Ben, armed with a rifle and the force of righteousness. It was his bullet, his true aim, his protection of Jess-Belle that wounded the creature. They caught each other’s gaze and Billy Ben thought he recognized…but no. In that small suspense of time, the creature snarled and leapt away.

Billy Ben returned home to find Jess-Belle gone. Fearing her victim of the wounded creature, he returned to the night to find his wife. Billy Ben came upon Jess-Belle’s lifeless body in the frozen meadow. Her body showed no signs of distress, save the small, thorny hole over her heart. There Billy Ben buried Jess-Belle, leaving her to the dark of the winter mountain. In the spring, he would stand in the shine of Elli Mae and look up to see the claiming of the mountain by wildflowers - windflower, fairy bells, larkspur, and jessamine.


End file.
